Managing Accommodation Services: Part 2

This presentation discusses the contribution of the accommodation sector in the industry, different types of accommodation services, and the roles of online sites for potential customers. It also explores the functions of the front office in various accommodation providers and the roles played by the front office department in Intercontinental Hotels.

Managing
accommodation
services
(PART 2)

INTRODUCTION
 A service in which management of accommodation services in a
proper manner is included is called accommodation management.
Every hospitality sector requires a standard for its maintenance,
hygiene and budget implementation. In order to manage these
services requirements are from public as well as private sectors
(Yang., Huang and Shen, 2017). It also requires development of such
conference centres, hotels, ships, hospitals, restaurants etc.

Contribution of accommodation sector in industry
 In hospitality industry accommodation service refers to providing
place to stay for some period of time to guests. It includes tourism
sector where people travel to places and need a place to stay at
destination.
 Facts
 Average occupation rate
 In order to measure performance in hospitality sector
occupancy rate is considered as prime indicator. In UK occupancy
rates generally in LFS, Oxford Economics are improving and this rate
have reached to 67.5 pounds per available room.

Annual occupancy rate of hotels in
the United Kingdom (UK)

Cont…
 Employment tax contribution
 In year 2014 employment rate in sector of hospitality was
around 2.9 million employment opportunities which is 8.8% of total
employment in UK. From year 2010 this sector have witnessed a
drastic growth in raising employment opportunities and also reducing
taxes as employment kept on rising and rose up to 331000 more in
same year (Martin-Fuentes and et. al., 2018).

UK direct hospitality employment – sub-
sectors

GDP
 The contribution of hospitality sector in Gross Domestic
Product of UK have proved that how important it is for growth as well
as development of economy of country. It has a significant role in
economy (Huber, 2017). Every year domestic travel has been
contributing around 217 billion of British pounds to economy.

Cont…

Various types of accommodation services and difference in
between commercial and non-commercial businesses:
 There are a number of accommodation choices available and
it is important to understand the difference in between various types
of accommodation. Some of its types are mentioned below-
 Commercial Businesses
 Hostels: Hostels are for wanderers and backpackers who are
short of money and who require an affordable place to stay. In such
cases hostels turns out to be best place to stay (Ragab and Meis,
2016). They are also known as guest house and also of very low
costs when compare to another accommodation services.

Different forms of ownership applied on accommodation
services
Ownership Type Definition Examples
Privately owned hotels Here a single person is owner with the help of some investors. This is very beneficial for person who owns it as he has
autonomy in decision making and management.
Example can be Wedgewood hotel which is situated in Vancouver. It was founded by Eleni skalbania who now co-owns
it with her daughter Elpie (Cvelbar, Grün and Dolnicar, 2017) .
Leased hotels In this there is an arrangement of private owners who lease it out to a corporation then lessee will be responsible for
every financial activity. This is a risky method as revenues are received a long time after expenditures.
Example can be Love hotel Leases.
Managed hotels When property of hotel is limited and is not working properly in hospitality field then it decides to hire a company for
its management.
An example of hotel management company is SilverBrich. They manage independent hotels of a number of franchise
brands.
Franchises They usually purchase or develop a hotel under same brand name rather than leasing them. They then become part of
same group under a franchisors name.
Examples are Radisson, Marriott, Hilton etc.
Fractional ownership It is known for developing financial hotels by selling some portion of it. Owners use their shares in rental pools and also
gets returns from it (Lee, Hu and Lu, 2018) .
For example, we can use Penticton lakeside resort and sun peaks ski resort.
Full Ownership Strata Units This is called as financial model in which hotel developers build new hotels with a sale of full ownership. Examples can be taken of Rosewood hotels, Fairmont pacific rim, Hotel Georgia etc.

Grading System
System of Grading Definition System Example
1 star Practical accommodations are offered by these hotels with a very limited facilities including only food and beverages. They operate at a small level and are usually privately owned. Services are delivered by owner or his family members. School House Hotel.
2 stars They are hotels with mid-range. Services are better than that of 1 star hotels as they include good quality mattresses, wall coverings etc. These hotels are from small to medium in sizes. They are also well equipped and provide a comfortable stay. Tartan Lodge
3 stars 3 star hotels provide a number of services with a number or additional services such as swimming pools, alarms and also offer average
range of services
. They have better staff for housekeeping and customer services. Their receptions are spacious with better spacious arrangements. Staff
here know different foreign languages and also offer good room services.
Ramada Hounslow
4 stars It consists of a number of excellent quality services. There are a number of services like laundry, valet facility etc. Marriot Group of Hotels. Edinburgh Grosvensor Hotel
5 stars They provide best services and luxuries to their customers. There are a number of staff to provide guests with every need of theirs. Accommodation in these hotels are very luxurious and spacious then others. They provide best international facilities. They have a number
of facilities such as internet, personalised gifts to welcome guests and an elegant furnishing and flawless services.

Discussion on what roles does online sites play for their
potential customers
 Convenient for customer: These are all those sites which are
convenient for their customers
 Changing preferences of customers: There are a number of sites
such as tripadvisor, makemy trip etc.

The functions of front office in
various accommodation provider
 Main function of front office manager is to attend visitors when they arrive
at hotel. It is required for them to be of a humble and polite nature. They
manage basic day to day functions and also look over availability of rooms.
Other than this they look for arrivals and departures of guests. They also
take care of various requirements and demands of visitors.
 Hotel
 There are a number of services provided by hotels which differ in different
hotels ranging from 1 star to 5 stars. They take reservations and other
facilities which are related to it. In good and reputed hotels, they hire a
receptionist based on communication skill. It is required of a receptionist to
have proper knowledge of hotels and each and every facility available at
hotel. They also develop good relation with guests in order to have visits
from them in future.

roles that a front office department plays in Intercontinental
Hotels
 Security: This includes primary staff who are available for security
and safety of guests and hospitality property. In intercontinental
hotel and resorts security and safety staff are well organised and
alert to maintain a safe environment for their guests 24*7 (Kim and
Lee, 2016) . This department is headed by a head of security who
has other employees working under him. It is his job to manage need
of staff for his department, technology as well as budget in order to
control security in hotels.

Cont…
 Front office: In this department visibility to customer and
interaction with themis maximum. They are the first face of hotel
which a guest has a look on. They act as first impression on minds of
customers
 Housekeeping: Front office works in cooperation with housekeeping
department. It is important for them to work in coordination in order
to achieve success. Housekeeping department makes sure that each
and every room fulfils all the required standards before a guest
enters it

CONCLUSION
 From the above it can be seen how important accommodation
services are for a hospitality industry it also has a number of other
services towards customers. These are classified into two different
types which are commercial and non-commercial. Along with this it
has also mentioned various types ownership in accommodation
services. Grade system of hotels with difference between them is
also described in this report along with specific examples. Function of
front office and various online sites is also mentioned in different
type of accommodation services like hotels, guest house and beds
and breakfast

REFERENCES
 Yang, S., Huang, S.S. and Shen, G., 2017. Modelling Chinese
consumer choice behavior with budget accommodation
services. International Journal of Culture, Tourism and Hospitality
Research.
 Martin-Fuentes, E. and et. al., 2018. Modelling a grading scheme for
peer-to-peer accommodation: Stars for Airbnb. International Journal
of Hospitality Management. 69. pp.75-83.
 Huber, A., 2017. Theorising the dynamics of collaborative
consumption practices: A comparison of peer-to-peer
accommodation and cohousing. Environmental Innovation and
Societal Transitions. 23. pp.53-69.